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Hindu casteist discrimination rife in North

09 Nov 2021

BY Dinitha Rathnayake Activists in the Northern Province alleged that various acts of discrimination and harassment, including those of a verbal and sexual nature, which are due to casteism practised by so called high-caste Hindus, have made daily life increasingly difficult for those occupying the so-called lower rungs of the caste hierarchy, including through the denial of access to basic facilities and the prohibition of entry to kovils (Hindu temples), schools, and the Parliament.  “They are saying that we are of the lower caste – the ones who make toddy, ones who are labourers, and ones who catch fish. This is not a new issue; this has been happening for centuries. They don’t give us water properly and only do so in a coconut shell. They don’t allow us to enter kovils. They even don’t allow our women to cover their upper body region,” activist Arun Siddharth further alleged while speaking to The Morning yesterday (9). “In September, these so-called high caste people stopped two of our boys from the Vaddukoddai village and abused them, alleging that they had plucked some leaves from their lands. They had used casteist slurs while doing this. Our boys had denied these allegations, saying that they have enough trees for themselves. This was only a scene created to abuse our boys. After about an hour, about 50 so-called high-caste people came to our villages in Arasadi, Jaffna, and abused us. I call this a riot. One person lost two fingers and required stitches also. The group was led by an officer working in a court of Vannaram. Arrests are not taking place as the Police are being bribed.” He claimed: “No politician has gone and looked into this; even Tamil politicians who constantly complain about discrimination at the hands of the Sinhalese people. They don’t talk about discrimination issues among our own people.” He said that he had therefore requested National Heritage, Performing Arts, and Rural Arts Promotion State Minister Vidura Wickramanayaka to help, the latter who had then gone to meet these victims, whereupon the Police had assured him that nine had been arrested in connection with the incident while the others are in hiding. “Wickramanayaka requested that the investigations be done well, and a police post has also been put up in the Vaddukoddai village since,” he added. Police sources told The Morning that the aforementioned incident has now been brought under control. A statement by the Jaffna People’s Forum for Coexistence on 27 October strongly condemned the incident. “The villages in and around Vaddukoddai where marginalised communities live don’t have paved roads. These villages are geographically and socially divided along caste lines and caste-based boundaries. The sand pathways in these villages become clogged with flood water during the rainy season. Some of the houses lack basic facilities. Parents from these communities complain that their children are discriminated against in the schools at Vaddukoddai. Even in places of worship, the community faces marginalisation and exclusion. The religious and social organisations that operate in Vaddukoddai are organised along caste lines. In everyday life, the marginalised people from this area face casteist slurs from those of dominant caste groups.” Siddharth further accused the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) of not speaking up on these issues, as TNA politicians are all so-called high-caste individuals as well. “They don’t let us enter the Parliament. They don’t let our children enter the Hindu schools as they know from our address as to what our caste is. Kovils are a business here and they don’t let us in. Caste is a state of mind and the root cause of this disease is the Hindu religion. We have been silenced for so long but now people are speaking up against this,” he claimed. TNA Spokesman and Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran PC was unavailable for comment on the matter.  


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